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Monday, January 26, 2009

More FOCA strawman

More Catholics on sermons, homilies and postcard campaigns against FOCA.Shannon Says...

I don't agree with putting people on the spot when it comes to politics nor should it be done in church. I feel if they said something and let people know there were postcards in the back and what FOCA was all about, it would not seem so pushy.

A very good legal analysis of FOCA pretty much points to the law as being what I thought it was, just fodder, not law:

The same combination, however, makes it a very good weapon in the abortion wars that have divided this country for over thirty years now. In my view, that is the true purpose of FOCA, which has been lurking around Congress in various versions for nearly two decades. Ultimately, the bill should be seen less as a serious attempt at lawmaking than as abortion-war propaganda dressed up as legislation. It’s noteworthy that from a purely political perspective, FOCA is useful to both prolife and prochoice activists. The bill helps prochoicers ward off any perceived threat to the right to abortion-even as, in its ominous shadows, prolifers see new threats to unborn life, and mobilize accordingly. And a new battle begins.

Which of course, is depressing, because that means our church isn't smart enough not to rise to the bait.

Obviously church leaders have every right to promote their concerns in the public arena. But FOCA is a phantom threat. It is meant to limit legislation by Congress on abortion. It will not be passed. Why would Congress pass a law to limit its own power? One well-placed Catholic commentator stated, "FOCA has as much chance of passage as the [now 0-15] Detroit Lions have of winning the next Super Bowl."

So, why is it that we were asked during mass to fill out postcards to our federal representatives to voice opposition to FOCA when we've never been asked to write postcards about more likely legislative topics like torture or health services funding?